MDQuit News Archives - May, 2009

Poorer children are exposed to more secondhand smoke
A recent study found in the April issue of Pediatrics finds that poorer children are exposed to more secondhand smoke than those from wealthier households. Dr. Michael Weitzman, a professor of pediatrics at New York University, states that the reason for this finding may be that poorer children are more likely to have a parent in the household that smokes. While only a third of children have one smoking parent in their household, this figure becomes much higher when considering economic class, with 49% of poor children and only 21% of wealthier children living with at least on adult smoker in the household. Read more here.

Researchers create profile for the “light” smoker phenomenon
While the effects of heavy smoking have always been a hot topic for health-based researchers, the effects of light smoking have been less of a concern until recently. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that one in five smokers in the United States can be classified as “light” smokers, which a number of studies and articles in a special March issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research have recently profiled. A number of findings were supported by these studies. The studies have found that Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders were more likely to be light smokers than whites. Adults younger than 35 were more likely to be light smokers than older adults. Young adults who smoked but lived in states with harsher smoking-related policies were more likely to be light smokers. Adolescents who smoked less than 4 cigarettes a day experienced no nicotine withdrawal 24 hours after ending use, while those who smoked 4 or more did experience withdrawal symptoms. Also, college students who smoked less than five days a month were more likely to experience shortness of breath than those who had not. Read more here.